What if Goucher held a clothing drive that didn’t allow African-Americans to donate clothes? What if we had a community service program that was open to everyone but Catholics? Would Goucher allow these programs to run? My guess, and its just a guess, but I would say no, they would never allow these programs to advertise on campus, use our facilities, or be associated with the college. It violates our community principles of respect, inclusion, and service and social justice to create or participate in any sort of program which, as a matter of policy, excludes one particular group of students based on a quality which is innate to that person.

Israel is wrong and Palestinians are right. Let’s let that sit for a moment…

Now, clearly that is a simplistic and overly reductionist statement. As reductionist, though, is the claim that Israel is right and the Palestinians are wrong. Both of these statements ignore a complex, nuanced, and layered history, which demand a fuller conversation. For this short analysis, however, I think it would be prudent to discuss some of the events of the recent Israeli-Gaza conflict.

First, the entire discussion over the epicenter of the most recent conflict, the assassination of Ahmed Jabari, has an interesting duality about it.

Same sex marriage has become the ultimate concern of gay political and social advocates; the goal of the gay rights movement. All over the country campaigns are waged, votes cast, and appeals lodged both in support and in opposition to same sex marriage.
As a gay man, my entire out life, I have been told, by EVERYONE (straight and gay alike) that marriage equality is the holy grail. Without it, gay people, gay families, and the gay community can never be equal to that of the rest of society.

In the midst of an uneasy financial climate, Goucher received some positive news in regard to the college’s financial situation. According to debt rating agency Standard and Poor, Goucher’s debt is an A- with a stable outlook. While this might seem like innocuous news, this maintaining of Goucher’s past rating is a big deal in the current financial atmosphere and an even bigger deal in the world of liberal arts institutions in higher education.

View through the perimeter of the construction zone fence on the academic quad. (Photo: Christopher Riley)

Goucher College, like all other businesses, accumulates debt when it takes on projects that can’t be covered by its normal income streams such as tuition. This debt has to be underwritten by another organization. These underwriters look at the risk associated with the selling of the debt and have to decide whether the potential risk of holding the debt outweighs the potential profits that may come from it. In many cases these underwriting organizations, banks, individuals, pension funds, etc., make a profit on the interest paid out by the organization accruing the debt.
The Standard and Poor’s rating is how these underwriting institutions know if the debt is risky or profitable based on the fiscal responsibility of the debtor and the organizations outlook for the future. The debt rating directly affects the interest rate the buyers of our debt will have to pay; the higher the credit rating, the lower the interest.
In a time when most colleges and universities are grappling with one of the most challenging times in recent history, having a good debt rating is essential.

It is unfortunate that someone with as much academic training as Aayan Hirsi Ali chose to be as single minded as she was when she visited Goucher on April 5th as a part of the President’s Forum. This choice is especially tragic considering the contradictory, volatile and fluid nature of her topic: religion.

As one of her main refrains throughout the evening of intense audience questions, she drew from the Qur’an, the Muslim holy book, claiming it said men should beat their wives. While this is clearly a decontextualized oversimplification, the verse she chose -Surah 4, Verse 34 – does list ways in which a husband should deal with a disobedient wife, with, as a last resort, to “lightly” beat her. Her claim is loosely tied to a few words in the Qur’an. She chose to highlight this verse to prove that Islam is oppressive to women. She did this by presenting this verse as the only perspective.Continue reading →